Rhys, Jean (1894-1979), a Dominican-born author, wrote novels, short stories, and poetry. Her portrayals of fragility and despair establish her as a fine, understated writer. Rhys gained critical praise, but for most of her lifetime she had little popular readership.
Rhys’s novels include Quartet (originally titled Postures, 1928), After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1931), Voyage in the Dark (1934), and Good Morning, Midnight (1939). A long period elapsed before Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), her most successful novel, was published.
Ella Gwendolyn Rhys Williams was born on Aug. 24, 1890, in Roseau, Dominica, of a Welsh father and Creole mother. Rhys moved to England in 1907. She studied briefly to be an actress, dividing her time between London and Paris. In Paris, she met the writer Ford Madox Ford, who encouraged her and wrote a preface to her first book of short stories, The Left Bank (1927). Rhys’s unfinished autobiography, Smile Please, was published shortly after she died on May 14, 1979.
